Samantha's Relationships
Family Naomi Grey - Samantha's relationship with her mother was complicated and extremely questionable for years prior to the woman's death. Naomi refused to allow her daughter anything more than the absolute minimum of human contact throughout the girl's childhood, causing their relationship to take on codependent elements. On the one hand, Naomi was doting and kind whenever possible and firm in her training of Samantha to have a certain level of emotional maturity and strength of will in wielding magical forces. On the other, she caused her to become poorly prepared for almost any other sort of social interaction and ill-prepared to deal with her demonic nature without the woman's guidance. Naomi's desire to protect Samantha reached paranoid levels that she refused to allow her daughter to see. She went to extraordinary levels towards the last years of her life to ensure that nobody sought to visit the two of them. Eventually, as she struggled to hold back Samantha's darker nature, she caved into the twisted temptation and engaged in an incestuous relationship with her daughter in order to help keep her emotionally under her thumb. The tactic largely worked, at least until the last year during which Valefar's dreams became clearer and clearer. In Samantha's mind, while she managed to eventually separate herself from the twisted, semi-romantic feelings she'd held for the woman, her mother never could have done wrong. Any insult towards her would result in aggressive or even violent reprisal. She viewed her with rosy tinted glasses and a complete inability to see the woman's significant flaws of character. She would accept that her relationship was anything but 'normal' in comparison to most, but she never allowed herself to seriously consider the possible problems that her mother had, or the very questionable nature of their relationship. Given her general attitude, it was unlikely she ever would. ''Valefar - '' To say that Samantha hates her father is an understatement. Valefar is the source of an unhealthy obsession that has been one of the central focuses of the cambion's life since her eighteenth birthday, when he began to invade her dreams. She blames him for almost everything bad that ever happens in her life and views herself to be the central piece in a conspiracy to torture her of which he is the head. While there is a sense in which her psychological struggles show all the hallmarks of a paranoid disorder, the reality is that she is for the most part correct in her assessment of the "Duke of Thieves." Valefar is just as obsessed with Samantha as she believes he is, though there is little to no warmth or caring in the actions he takes upon himself. He is not grooming her as a protege or aide in the wars he wages, but merely as a spiritual battery. All of his repeated and warped attempts to force his will upon her, to manipulate the events of her life, have been the emotional equivalent of a gardener tending to a prize-winning squash while it grows, seeking to cultivate the largest and finest product for display and then consumption that he can manage. Nothing but hostility exists between the two of them, and Valefar is the central focus of Samantha's loathing for her own existence. The cambion wants nothing more than to see him die screaming, bloodied and destroyed forever, so that she can rescue her mother's spirit from his clutches and release it to the blessed realm of Tir na Nog. Valefar, for his part, maintains his presence in her life as much as anything to keep her focused on destroying him. The longer she is like this, the more weak and potentially corruptible she is, or at least this is the way he is thinking about it. ''Danjel -'' Samantha barely knows her half-brother. The two only became truly aware of each others' existence when she entered Tartarus to rescue Dusk. In theory, the fallen grigori was at least familiar with the fact that Valefar had allowed a child of his and suspected that she might have been intended for some plot of his, but beyond this he was trapped well beyond any ability to determine much about her. However, once he had met her, he began to become rather interested in her story. Danjel, much like his father, was not a creature that offered aide or took interest in people for selfless reasons. His motives were largely centered upon the same ones as herself, however, making him a potential ally against Valefar, though one she was likely to trust. Beyond this, Danjel shared one thing in common with his incubus father and cambion half-sister, his libido. After all, it was for sexual congress with humans that the Grigori originally fell from heaven's grace. He was already damned anyway, so what was wrong with seeking to add just one more vice to the list. If only Samantha was aware of his attentions, she might be more revolted, considering her attitudes to Valefar. Romantic ''Dusk - '' Riese Kiff was the closest thing to a legitimate infatuation that Samantha ever had prior to the Asgard Eventide, outside of her raw sexual attraction to many of the people that she met over time. Their "Relationship" couldn't quite gotten past confessions even after the slow return of metahumanity and Dusk's resurrection. It suffered from significant complications due to their personal histories, but nevertheless she remained interested in developing something beyond simple friendship or alliance with her. Both shared quite a bit in common, being very stubborn and self-reliant people with little wish to give up. Both were extremely opinionated and pointed, and had an interest in the powers of the arcane. Neither had ever had what could be construed to be a 'healthy' relationship. Additionally, they went through at least a few life and limb encounters together, causing them to develop a certain amount of camaraderie. There were just two problems. One, Dusk was straight. It was an almost unavoidable reality, as Riese never displayed anything more than a light sexual attraction towards women at any point and those few times were only towards Samantha while under the influence of the succubus' magic and pheromones. It weighed heavily on Samantha that the only times that Dusk ever seemed to display any real attraction were when her demonic pheromones overpowered the girl's senses in up-close and personal moments. It called into question whether or not there is any real chemistry between the two, outside of their banter during missions against shared villains. The other problem was that, technically, Samantha should have been one of Dusk's mortal enemies. While she was not undead herself, the order of undead hunters to which Dusk belonged would frown upon any dealings with a demon, even a half-blooded one trying to live more as a human like Samantha. Even considering the fact that she had been banished by her order and Samantha had brought her back to life and rescued her from hell with the aid of a stolen miracle and part of the anchor of her soul to her body, there was still the inescapable truth that they should have wished to kill each other. The two could reach an agreement to work together and ally against shared enemies or in mutual interests of research and exploration, but there was always a bitter sort of rivalry waiting to bubble to the surface every time they met, an urge to fight that was especially pronounced in Dusk's case. With every successive meeting, the necromancer felt more and more bothered by her continued life or the fact that she owed it to a demon, unsure what it would mean for her order, for the state of her soul, what damage was done by the use of the demonic seed to bring her back to life, or if she was betraying her order and values just letting Samantha live. Their awkward friendship struggled over and over again due to these issues and Samantha's inability to stop flirting with Dusk after her resurrection. All the same, Samantha was not one to give up easily, and Dusk could not quite bring herself to make a decision in the wake of her resurrection, so for a time it remained in the somewhat tense and tenuous status that it reached after that event. At the very least, she managed to keep Samantha's amorous attentions from reaching a sexually mature level for now, simply struggling when the demon wanted the occasional 'kiss to sustain herself' in long explorations. ''Emppu - '' Samantha's most stable sexual relationship, Emppu was basically a bum. He had almost no desire to better himself, and could rarely think beyond the next hit. He would hold down jobs only to fuel his habits and keep himself housed in basic necessities. The green haired young man was almost depressingly prone to self-destructive behavior and abuse of hallucinogenic substances to reach new highs. Samantha's presence in his life was always intrusive, moderately abusive and twisted, but then again his friends were little better and she always came bearing powerful drugs that would make the banality of his existence go away. This is why they've worked in the past. Emppu simply couldn't bring himself to actually care what Samantha did to him as long as she doped him to the gills and he survived the night. Admittedly, he occasionally fraternized with the idea of allowing her to give him drugs strong enough to overdose him. With some of the chemicals she offered (especially the Essence of Bhima) always seemed like a "good way to go." There was never a way that their relationship could ever succeed in a healthy fashion. However, it was too convenient and easy at times of stress. Emppu was, for Samantha, something of an emotional sponge and she was, for him, a dark fantasy coupled with the things that he craved. In the end, it might cost him everything, but for the time being he could tolerate it and she couldn't quite stop going to see him when she needed somewhere to crash. (Emppu property of Rotten Cats on dA, Dusk property of Vertigirl on dA) Supportive ''Yenna Dragona - '' Yenna and Samantha barely spoke. When they first met, Yenna was mind-controlled through a chip that Samantha short-circuited just before Yenna's father, Kira the Dark, spirited her away from Viper's clutches. After this event, she never had contact with either she or her father, though she was aware that the two felt that they owed her a great debt. It wasn't something that Samantha thought about for any length of time. Debts were made to be paid or broken, and in many respects it was just one more commodity to be exchanged when the time came. She hadn't needed a reward for helping rescue Yenna, as she had wanted to see her released more on principle than anything. When Yenna went out of her way to back Samantha's bid to aid the Thunder Force both before and after Omega's Rise and Fall, Samantha was surprised. Most of what Yenna knew about her was based upon the reputation that Vile and her father had brought to her attention at times. But, given the elf's pronounced tendency to make decisions and hold to them strongly when viewing others' character unless they did something very pronounced to change her attitudes, it was not necessarily a surprise that she viewed Samantha in a far more positive light than most people generally would have. Samantha, meanwhile, generally viewed Yenna in a positive light merely for her being given the chance that she was given to actually prove herself. Without the elf's word, there was a possibility that she might never have been given the chance to redeem herself. To her, it was she who owed the debt, as those simple actions opened possibilities that might preserve her very soul and have a lasting effect on her growth and development. For as little as the two knew about each other, they developed very positive outlooks regarding each other and a strong willingness to team up in the future, one that would likely be made available as "Deviants" returned and Samantha sought out the Thunder Force. ''Rufus Schwarzkreuz - '' Samantha developed what could be construed as a 'working relationship' with Rufus in the encounters that they had. It was not one with actual missions shared, as with Dusk or others she actually took down threats with, but it was one where they recognized similarities in both their respective issues and methods in dealing with problems. Less an actual working relationship, it entailed a willingness to work together towards common goals when the opportunity presented itself, such as during the Freedom War, Omega's Rise and Fall and Viper's Tournament. Generally, however, the two never ended up actually working alongside each other. Rufus' eyes were always set on Blaze, and Samantha was the sort to know when a man had something that he truly and deeply wanted, even if he'd never admit it to her or himself. She wasn't one to desire to interfere, even if she did feel a faint attraction to him at times, due in large part to his very stubborn, cynical attitude which resonated well with her darker humor. Whenever they met up, they would usually end up on the same team, but generally working in opposite areas to aid their respective allies. The result of this was that Samantha built up a healthy respect for Rufus, both as a warrior and for his level of control he exhibited. She, admittedly, was not as prominent on his radar, but he recognized that they shared similar goals and that she had proven both competent and useful in the past. It was a working relationship that had the potential of building in the future, if they ever got around to actually working alongside each other. ''Vile Creed - '' Samantha and Vile barely knew each other. It was better to say that the vampire was aware of Samantha's existence because the red-head had caused more trouble for Viper than she'd seen done in a while, and therefore made her smile. They shared a common enemy, and both of them seemed hell-bent on handling their problems in their own way, without involving others as much as possible. It was an attitude that Vile could respect, though she assumed that the Colosseum would be the last time they met, she carrying memories of the events only because she was kicked out early and fled with Yenna's escape. They had more opportunity to meet, however, than either would have expected. She and Yenna stood along with Rufus and several others among the heroes at the last stand against Omega. Samantha's appearance at the doors was a shock, more than anything else. She'd always come across as a person bent more on her own survival and success, someone who was a hero more by accident than intention. There was, however, a stubborn resolve there that made her want to give the girl at least a chance. The two didn't speak much, but Vile and Sam at least made mental notes to keep an eye out for the others. Anyone with as much of a habit of pissing people off as the half-blooded sorceress was bound to run into Vile again sometime. For her part, Samantha didn't immediately come to trust Vile. She was a loner, like Samantha, but she was also very obviously a dangerous woman. However, her vouching along with Yenna for Samantha in the wake of Omega's Rise spoke volumes to her. While she did shelve any urge to contact the vampire, as she had other fish to fry, she was someone she wanted to keep in the back of her mind as a potential contact. ''Charon - '' The Ferryman of the dead, Charon was a spirit that Samantha possessed considerable empathy towards. In principle, until she barged into Tartarus to rescue Dusk, she had never expected to meet him, nor had she thought much about him. She only spoke to the lesser deity a pair of times, and these only in brief phrases, but she sensed within his plight a deep and terrible injustice, one that she found wholly unacceptable. Rare were the times when an injustice so outrages her sensibilities that it coerced her to plan action. Having seen his incarceration on the ferry of the river Acheron as a forced laborer by the forces that lurk within, she did not want to leave him behind when she and Dusk fled, but knew no way to release him from his bondage, nor even if he could or would accept such a release because his realm of authority was over the River Acheron. Charon, for his part, shared a certain amount of respect for Samantha when he saw her reaction to both what her father had done in cheating him of his fares for her, and in wanting to show him the old honors he was due. He was not a spirit that appreciated pity much, but at the same time this sympathy was heart-felt and bore a great similarity to his own anger at what had been done. He, just like the cambion, was unsure what he would do if freed of his imprisonment, but he had also never truly thought of being free. He had been imprisoned since the days of the Titans long before, his fee one of the only veneration he ever received, and had been so long forgotten that he felt as if he were spiritually wasting away. Her reaction to him awoke for a moment a will to act he had not had since Tartarus had fallen to Lucifel's forces, and even before that time. Though the two did not have contact in the immediate future after Samantha's return from Omega's defeat, she began to hatch plans in the back of her mind to somehow aid the Ferryman's plight, out of principle. ''Pulsador - '' Samantha did not know Pulsador other than from a single news feed prior to the two of them being tag-teamed against Titamazona's forces in the wake of Omega's meteoric rise and fall. When the two met, she had little to say to the cybernetically enhanced power-suit user. She could sense in him a great deal of spirit and a burning need for revenge, things that she understood well. It wasn't a true kinship, but they both had the same sort of fire in their eyes, and seeing him charge off after Titamazona reminded her of what she wanted to do with her father, his fate and desperation carrying with it a potential warning as well. After returning after Omega's fall, Samantha did not have an immediate opportunity to contact the hero but she made a mental note not to forget him, even if he barely remembered her from the fight. He was the sort who should not have been allowed to fight his battles alone. There were too few with spirit like that in the world. Without them, hope might have been lost completely. ''The Red Sage -'' Samantha did not have what could be considered to be a good first impression of the Red Sage. She felt he was pushy, a little bit preachy and very invasive in how he wanted to handle her spiritual problems. While she accepted that he might actually have the power to balance the harmony of her life force and perhaps even find a way to release her from the seeds' control, she was not a fan of his complete confidence while having so little understanding of what Valefar had done or planned for her. She didn't trust his initial offerings and refused him. Regardless of this distrust, the Sage was still someone who had treated her well despite what she was, and who had the possibility of offering her assistance in controlling her baser nature. She kept him in mind after returning from Omega's Fall as a possible point of contact, but elected to keep as much distance as possible for the longest time, to avoid potential complications if he got truly aggressive about his intentions, or deemed her a threat. (Yenna, Kira the Dark, Viper, Rufus and Vile property of Branded Curse on dA, Pulsador property of d3kab1u3 on dA, The Red Sage property of Zorzathir on dA ) Antagonistic ''Threadjacker - '' Samantha did not hate Alexandra, though the feeling is not mutual. While the time-controller managed to reach a point where she was able to tolerate Samantha's existence, she still viewed her to be partially responsible for her sister's death. Even if Judas was, in truth, the culprit whose actions led to Galina's death, Samantha was in Threadjacker's mind responsible in some small part for the fact that she did not survive the encounter. Samantha, on the other hand, did not particularly hate the speedster for her feelings, not at least after she realized why it seemed to be that she showed up frequently to cause problems for her in large gatherings of metahumans. For the most part, the relationship would remain for the foreseeable future a tense one at best, and one troubled by and riddled with the sins of the past. Alexandra was plagued by the haunted imagery of her sister's death, as was Samantha, and both had the spectre of the immortal inquisitor in the back of their minds, a threat that needed to be eradicated as well as an old wound in need of tending. It was not likely that there would ever be any sort of reconciliation between the two girls beyond that point, however, as Alexandra was never known for her forgiving nature by those who had grown close to her. ''Allie - '' Alondra "Allie" Romero was always a sore loser. Even though she did not re-emerge from the halls of time and space with the returning heroes and villains, at least not initially, the tabloid journalist turned werecat was the sort of woman with a long memory, especially for grudges that she nursed. Samantha broke apart her hold over the South American news media in the aftermath of Omega's attack. When the allied heroes brought their strike down, it destroyed that power structure right before her eyes and ruined the plans she had laid the groundwork for of controlling all mass media in an entire continent. Her power over peoples' hearts and minds would have been indescribable. So, it went without saying that, whenever the venomous viper of a reporter returned to the land of mortals, she would have quite a score to settle with Samantha. ''Viper - '' Viper was another person who never did take losing well. The loss of her 'pet' in Yenna Dragona was a shock to the crime kingpin, and a heavy blow. She hadn't needed Yenna for any serious plotting that she'd built up over the last few years, but the elf had been a long-standing thorn in her side and she'd enjoyed the chance to lord it over her enemies that she'd turned one of their own against them so completely. When Samantha appeared in her Tournament, Viper had initially been amused and assumed that Samantha was a minor, self-serving witch of moderate power, nobody that she needed to be concerned with. She was yet another mouthpiece for some minor overlord in hell wanting to keep his eyes and ears in other villains' business. Samantha proved to be something else entirely, however, and Viper cursed herself briefly for not paying more attention to the cambion in terms of her actual motivations and the extent of her powers when she challenged Viper's champion to a duel that guaranteed a spot in the finals. At first, it had sounded like posturing, but then the red-head just hadn't quit looking for a way to break Viper's hold on Yenna. That it was successful only further brought home the fact that, while she'd watched all of the other many heroes out to rescue the elf, she'd missed someone completely who'd come out of left field, and done what she'd done without any real hope of gain for it. It didn't make sense to her, and that alone pissed her off. Viper hated surprises almost as much as she hated losing. In the end, though, Samantha simply wasn't important enough to charge after. For all that Yenna's loss was an eyesore, she'd managed to get genetic samples of all the competitors, including Samantha. The genetics of the cambion had been an interesting study and taught her a considerable amount about regenerative faculties and physical resistance possible in a humanoid body without powerful metahuman or super-science alterations. However, the cambion wasn't worth more than that. She wasn't the sorcerer that others Viper hunted were, and though she carried an interest for Hybris, Viper simply had too much on her platter to be bothered going further than keeping an eye out for her in the future. However, she had a long memory, and if the two of them ever met again after she finally re-emerged from being lost in time and space, she would definitely remind Samantha of that. ''Black Betty - '' Unlike Viper and Allie, Black Betty wasn't a woman with a particularly long memory. She'd never really been all that complicated of a sorcerer or necromancer to begin with. All she had ever wanted was to bring her friends back, and Samantha had stood in the way of that. When they'd met months later in the wake of Omega's Rise, she'd remembered Samantha, not so much as a rival or someone she held a grudge against, but as someone who had a nasty habit of getting in the way of her plans, and as someone that it was better to squash like a bug rather than allow her to build up momentum and potentially ruin everything. Betty, probably, developed one of the more healthy understandings of the danger that Samantha usually represented to a villain's plans. She wasn't as powerful as many of the most dangerous foes, but she was persistent once she decided to do something. If she felt strongly enough to oppose a person's plans, she would crawl to the depths of hell to see her aims accomplished, and the cambion was more than willing to take her time in plotting out vengeance or justice and use as many subtle means as necessary to set the stage for a villain's downfall. She knew the type, because she shared a few of those traits herself. So, when she saw her again, and at any time in the future, she simply looked at her as someone who needed to be crushed and destroyed, not toyed with or tortured. Killed. Betty always was simple that way. ''Domino Tusnelda -'' Samantha and the professional wrestler did not entirely depart the Viper's Tournament on good terms. In principle, Domino carried enough of her memories from the event to recall both that she had won it, and also that she had defeated Samantha in the course of the events, twice. They had tangled several times throughout, and could not have had more disparate attitudes to the events. Both had their own agendas, and both were in the way of those agendas. It bred a certain level of animosity that would remain after even Hybris' final intervention, but it was more of a simmer than anything, something that would crop up only if they ran into each other again down the road, not something that required active pursuit. ''Judas Guile - '' Judas was one of the people in the world that Samantha despised almost as much as she hated her father. There was a fierce, bloody and vicious loathing that she possessed for the torture she'd suffered at his hands that knew almost no bounds. He represented what she hated most in the world itself: Intolerance, Depravity in the name of Justice, Wanton Cruelty, the Depredations of the Christian Church (even considering that he was an outright heretic, he still represented this to her), Sorcery Abused and a host of other things. He had been tied to one of what she considered to be one of her greatest failures after she came to a clearer understanding of the Seeds, and stood for some of the weakest parts of herself. At the same time, Samantha was deathly afraid of Judas. He was almost unassailable by her powers. She was reasonably certain that almost no spell she possessed could actually harm him. Perhaps she could light a fire inside of a forest and hope the natural flames would burn him alive, but she didn't actually think that would work sufficiently to accomplish the task. He was a more herculean kill than even her father, as he was completely immune to her most powerful attacks, rather than simply much more powerful than her for now. She had not reached the point of thinking of ways that could actually harm Judas, as the fear was so pronounced. One of the reasons that she turned Threadjacker on him was that, as a shared foe, life was simpler if the other girl was dealing with him than her. As much as she wanted Judas dead, she would have rather never faced him again. For his part, Judas barely cared about Samantha. If he ever saw her, she was yet another demonic spawn that needed to be eradicated, and one tied to one of the Dukes of Hell. However, he was such a patient creature and so separated from the way that most mortals perceived time that one more demon was a flyspeck on the wall, a ripple in a much broader ocean. He couldn't be bothered to hunt her down, not if the opportunity didn't present itself on its own. ''Hybris - '' Samantha always did get the willies about Hybris' seemingly unhealthy obsession for her during Viper's Tournament. Towards the end, she became convinced that the demon had the intention to actually try and devour her, as others had, and made it a point to escape them and simply avoid them again in the future. It wasn't as if Hybris' interest was anything particularly new to her at that point in her life, after all. They simply occupied a position as one of the more persistent of the threats to hunt after her at points. Hybris, on the other hand, left Samantha to stew on a slow boil. They didn't need to have her right then, but they had every intention of claiming her. The cambion was far from the greatest of prizes, but there was a sensation that something about all of this hinted at her having far more power for the demon to draw upon. The demon wanted to claim it for herself somehow, and if they were given the opportunity to get away with it, she intended to. However, it was not worth their while to put any real risk into the venture. ''Juny - '' Juny could not have hated Samantha more than he did the day they parted company, seemingly forever. He would spend months, years even in psychological therapy to try to repair the damage done to his psyche, and there was a sense in which he could never quite view women the same way again. Despite his outer personality still remaining the same, he carried a sort of bitter resentment, a very understandable one considering what happened, that burned towards power-wielding individuals like Samantha and, to a lesser extent women in general. If he were to have ever seen Samantha again, he would have looked for the opportunity to return the favor for all the harm she'd done. Samantha, on the other hand, viewed Juny with pity. The kind of vengeance he wanted wasn't a cure for his pain, and she knew it. If he ever did kill her, she'd just come back. He knew this, and yet still the rage was there and the desire. Every time he did it would only drag both of them further towards corruption and madness. As a result, she denied him any chance at that vengeance, simply because there was no hope of really helping him through it. She would have considered it, if it would have given him closure, but she was fairly certain that it would not. ''Deadboy -'' In theory, Samantha and Deadboy barely thought of each other after their one meeting. There wasn't a great deal of antagonism, though the two heroes had very different mindsets to how they approached dealing with others. However, the fact remained that she'd lost her wings to him. If ever they did actually speak for any length of time again, she did expect to get some level of payback, even if she couldn't get the permanent sort that her aching back might have wanted in vindication. ''Janine - '' Janine never thought of Samantha again after the fateful night the two met that led to Samantha's profound fear of all things serpentine. The naga had the memory of a sparrow about most things and was far too lazy to worry about the cambion. It was Samantha who focused a great deal of her emotional energy on the ebon hued serpent. She wanted her dead, tortured, destroyed, but in reality she simply didn't have the will to go hunting for her again. To do so would mean facing her killer once again, and it was something as horrifying as facing Judas in some ways, worse in others. In the end, most of this was rendered at least partially moot due to Omega's Fall. Samantha briefly went looking for the naga after her return, but could not find her. If she was brought back from being lost in time and space, there were solid odds she was somewhere else entirely. It was a seething pain and hatred that seemed to have no solution, at least not in the immediate future. (Domino Tusnelda property of Thedude255 on dA, Black Betty property of bogmonster on dA, Hybris, Yenna Dragona, and Viper property of Branded Curse on dA, Allie property of d3kab1u3 on dA, Juny property of Rotten Cats on dA, Deadboy property of Spin5544 on dA, Janine property of Linkatiko on dA )